What happens to math going forward

Terence Tao has become the unofficial spokesperson for the future of mathematics. Elisabeth Bumiller, for the New York Times, reports on the soured relationship between Tao and OpenAI:

OpenAI’s releases have now left him feeling used. “As recently as a year ago, I had a pretty good relationship with many employees at OpenAI,” he said in a recent phone conversation.

“A lot of people I interacted with shared a very common vision of how A.I. should be used — you know, to empower scientists.” But the rush to publish new findings, he said, shows their true purpose. They “used math for what they needed, which was to evaluate their models,” he said. “At this point, I don’t see a way to constructively engage.”

I feel for the PhD students who are four years into research and OpenAI comes along. I think the only successful path forward involves figuring out how these new tools intertwine with existing work.